So long as we all (the “market”) keep buying iPhones the Apple management team will have no pressure to focus on fixing bugs instead of shipping new features.

You and I, by buying new toys, are part of the problem, not the solution.

The Photos app has changed. After spending some time with it, I don’t see it as more complicated. I find the new utility section pretty helpful.

You can fully customize the Control Center. If you want BT devices on the first page, put them there. Also, you can do a longer swipe to get several pages deep, instead of a swipe a tap.

I’ve noticed some bugs, but I assume those will be worked out in time, just like with any major release.

1. New software comes out to support new models. People want new models. From what I've seen, this is driven largely by newer phone cameras. I avoid this by customarily carrying a pocket camera smaller than most phones, with 10X zoom, and often, a venerable 42X Coolpix "just in case". Cameras last. Phones are "model year".

2. Developers (and Apple) stop supporting older software and hardware due to the demands of testing and supporting so many combinations. And sometimes, they just write to the latest version (but the features!).

3. Speaking of features, Oh the features! Competition is driven largely by feature seeking, too often at the expense of basics in the mad rush. I read this post on a phone and switched to the mac because the mac has a GhostText browser extension that won't lose the text area, which the phone does from time to time when switching apps, most infuriatingly. But people want AI (Did anyone actually ask for it?) and yet, AirDrop often takes 10 seconds to recognize the mac which is two feet away from the phone.

Now, I'm not arguing that competition is entirely bad. If Apple hadn't created the mac, Microsoft might be offering "DOS 2024" today.